KaylynnBossart

previous Saturday, June 1st. I arrived at 7:30am to make sure my car was serviced right away--as they are open till noon on Saturdays. I go into the front desk to check in where I'm told, this will be simple and "you'll be in and out". I'm a patient person but this took AN HOUR AND A HALF, with no check in of the status of my vehicle. Around 10:30am, the service rep comes over and explains to me that "the part has to be ordered" and that I have to schedule another appointment. First off--they sent me a letter in the mail saying the parts were ready and to come and have it serviced. I'm not sure how many Vibes are in my area but this letter was received the same week I scheduled the appointment. Annoyed, I leave and have breakfast with my family, then upon returning home there is a voicemail on my phone from Budd Baer saying they DID install the recall kit. Wait--did I miss something here?? First, you heavily underestimate the time then tell me a part has to be ordered, then say it was already installed? HOW do you miscommunicate that?? I tried calling back (this was close to 11:30am) and with no success, voice mailboxes--open till noon? I don't think so. The following Saturday, June 8th--I scheduled my state inspection, because how horribly wrong could that go? How wrong I was. Similar setup time--8am. I even dropped my car off Friday evening so they could have access to it first thing in the morning. This particular Saturday, I had a planned party from 1:00PM-4:00PM with 50 guests. I figured, a state inspection could take no longer than an hour. At 9am I received a call saying that a front tire rod needed replaced, a realignment and 2 license plate bulbs to be replaced...after "said and done" it was going to cost $450. I had alignment done on my vehicle end of April at Monro, that is RIGHT down the street. If anything was wrong with that part, they would have found it. I went over to Budd Baer with my dad and we explained this to the service rep, and we said, ok, we're going to double check at Monro, since they did the alignment not too long ago. You could see the hesitation and unease wash over this service rep's face...."Oh.....ok.....uh, we'll have your car down in 10 minutes. We close at noon today. Your car passed emissions but we cannot issue a state inspection sticker until there is proof of repair on that part". 30 minutes go by and when I finally had my car keys handed to me, they made me pay for emissions AND state inspection (even though the sticker was not issued). We go down to Monro and the car is checked. The employee there comes out and looks at the invoice of my billing from Budd Baer--whoa!!!! X amount of dollars for this part??? Let's check out your car. They put it up in the air, he comes back--"Well, I don't know who looked at this but there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with your car. Nothing at all." Completely distraught, I explained that I needed proof of fix to get my state sticker. He gets on the phone to Budd Baer, took forever to get through--hitting voice mailboxes left and right, this was at 11:00am. 11 is NOT noon, so people are not answering the phone. After finally getting through, the Monro employee asks who inspected the vehicle and asked them to come down and SHOW him what is wrong with the part, because in fact, nothing really IS wrong with it. They refused to send any employee down. After they were called out on LYING, they still didn't take full responsibility of (nearly) ripping me off. I'm going to take this time to commend Monro on their FANTASTIC and HONEST service. If you live in Washington, PA, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND going to Monro. They are honest and wonderful people!!! He explained to us that if I DID need that part, not only would they repair it but they would HONOR the alignment, meaning after the part being replaced, I wouldn't have to pay for realignment (that is a special situation however, they were going to honor it because I recently had it done by them--nonetheless, very nice!). On top of Budd Baer trying to rip me off included the wanted charge of $22 for license plate bulbs. My dad and I went over to Wal*Mart and got BOTH of them for $4 and Monro installed them for me. Their mantra expands to all employees--don't lie & don't steal. Tom, the employee who works there mostly all of the time says, "If you don't need a part, I'm not going to sell it to you--if you need it I will." I don't live in the area anymore, I actually live in Pittsburgh, but finding a good mechanic or place to take your car can be an arduous task and finding someone you trust and who does good work is very hard to find. They, however, are most definitely worth the trip down and will take excellent care of you and your car!! On Wednesdays they have a "ladies day" where oil changes are only $17.99!! You can't beat that, even if you go out and do it yourself, after about 4 or 5 quarts of oil and filter, you're looking at about $20-25. Budd Baer is possibly the worst business I've ever set foot in. Even on a basic line of communications....when I went to pay for my state/emissions I was asked "credit or debit"--the cashier almost ran through the card as credit when I specifically said debit. Basic communication is simple. I can't stress enough to STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!!! They even used to do work on the police vehicles in Washington, as there is a barracks right next door but not anymore and I can certainly see why. Anyone I know from Washington who owns a Subaru did not purchase it at their dealership, as they got better deals elsewhere!! One of my friends was recently in a car accident and his Subaru got towed to this location and he ended up taking it somewhere else because his car sat there for 3 WEEKS and it wasn't even touched. Completely unprofessional. The service reps and customer service people are nice, they are not nasty or mean in any way but it's all a face the put on just to rip you off. DO NOT GO HERE!!!!!!